The present disclosure relates generally to a method of dispensing cutlery utensils, such as with a cutlery utensil dispenser, from, for example, single and multiple stacks of cutlery utensils.
Eating facilities often provide cutlery utensils in dispensing bins, where all customers place their hands into the bins in order to retrieve a knife, fork, spoon or spork. While such arrangements provide for economical dispensing of cutlery utensils, as opposed to sets of utensils being separately wrapped in plastic sleeves, the open air bins are not very hygienic, and can spread hand-carried bacteria and the like to other utensils in the bin or potentially to another customer.
In an attempt to address concerns relating to the hygienic dispensing of cutlery utensils, enclosed dispensers have been employed where a stack of cutlery utensils is placed in a utensil compartment and the cutlery utensils are dispensed one at a time on command by operation of a dispensing lever. Such arrangements may be suitable for their intended purpose, but are also limited by the capacity of utensils they are capable of holding. One remedy to such a capacity issue may be to simply make the utensil compartment taller, thereby enabling multiple stacks of pre-measured and pre-assembled cutlery utensils to be placed one on top of the other. However, such a dispenser would be quite tall, would require refilling from a relatively high level, and would require each of the separate stacks to be properly aligned one on top of the other during refilling so that the cutlery utensils are properly aligned for dispensing. Additionally, the cutlery utensils being dispensed must be made accessible to the user, preferably by making only the handling portion of the cutlery utensil accessible to enhance hygiene of the utility end of the cutlery utensil. In view of these and other issues, there is a need in the art for an improved cutlery utensil dispensing method and dispenser for implementing such a method.